Top Stories: West Dallas City Council Race Heats Up; Getting To Know Poet Matt Morton

Saturday is Election Day for cities and school districts across North Texas. One of the hottest races is in West Dallas – the focus of our current One Crisis Away series on affordable housing, called “No Place To Go.”

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Local stories from KERA News.

In Dallas City Council’s District Six, Incumbent Monica Alonzo faces five challengers. As KERA’s Jessica Diaz-Hurtado reports, the housing issue is the issue in this district.

Other stories this evening:

Dallas County's district attorney says she'll conduct a thorough and swift investigation into the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in Balch Springs. Faith Johnson told The Associated Press in an interview that while some community leaders have concerns about how prior district attorneys have investigated officer-involved shootings, she has a track record of being committed to fairness.

The National Endowment for the Arts appears to have sidestepped attempts to defund it. The national debate got us wondering about the NEA’s impact on artists in North Texas. This week in the Art&Seek’s Artist Spotlight series, reporter Hady Mawajdeh explores what a recent NEA grant means to poet Matt Morton.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Two people died today in an apparent murder-suicide at North Lake College in Irving. Around 11:45 Wednesday morning, the college issued an active-shooter alert. It instructed students and employees to barricade themselves into rooms.